$ echo "$selections"
1
2
3
$ for i in $selections ; do echo "i: $i"; done
i: 1
i: 2
i: 3

printf '%s' "$selections"

printf '%s' "$selections" | od -c

0000000   1  \n   3  \n   5
0000005
select: 1
3
5

printf '%s' "$selections" | od -c

for select in $selections ; do
    ((i++))
    echo "select: $select"
    echo "item_list entry: ${item_list[$select]}"
    choices[i]=$(echo ${item_list[$select]} | cut -f1 -d"!")
done

$ selections=$(printf '1\n3\n5')
$ for select in $selections ; do echo "select: $select"; done
select: 1
select: 3
select: 5

#!/bin/bash
foo="bar"
foo="baz" echo "temp $foo"
echo "orig $foo"

$ foo.sh
temp bar
orig bar

#!/bin/bash
foo="bar"
foo="baz" perl -le 'print "temp $ENV{foo}"'
echo "orig $foo"

$ foo.sh
temp baz
orig bar

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